So Who is Already ‘Tired of Winning?’

Snake oil, anyone?

—The only U.S. President who had a worse beginning to his term than Donald Trump was William Henry Harrison, the 9th President. At Harrison’s inauguration held on a wet and chilly day in Washington, DC, he refused to wear an overcoat and a hat, he rode to the ceremony on horseback rather than in the closed carriage he was offered, and he delivered the longest inaugural address in U.S. history, which took over two hours to read. Harrison died just 31 days later from complication of pneumonia.

While Donald Trump’s physical health appears somewhat better than Harrison’s during this point in his presidency, Trump’s political health ailments far exceed those of the stalwart hero of Tippecanoe, and, in fact, any of his predecessors.

Though Trump shouted at his rallies over the course of the election season that “We’re gonna win so much, you’re gonna get tired of winning!”, the reality is quite the opposite.

For someone who published the best-selling book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump should have had at least one legislative victory notch chiseled into his political belt by now.

In his first month in office, Trump fired his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, for lying about his contacts with Russian government officials during the campaign. The FBI is currently investigating Flynn for those contacts and a reported $65,000 he received from a Russian firm, plus reported large amounts of money he received from the Turkish government when working as an undeclared agent, and for allegedly talking about kidnapping Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen from his Pennsylvania home with senior Turkish government officials whom they allege masterminded the recent attempted coup in that country.

Federal courts halted Trump’s two executive order travel bans, the first on seven and the second on six majority-Muslim nations, from going into effect since the judges involved in these cases determined these orders represent unconstitutional injunctions on the basis of religion.

Without prior advice and consultation with his military commanders and intelligence officers, Trump went ahead with a raid on a suspected al-Qaida command in Yemen, resulting in the tragic death of a U.S. Navy SEAL and several innocent civilians, while killing few enemy combatants and unearthing little valid intelligence information.

FBI director, James Comey, confirmed in his sworn testimony before a House of Representatives Intelligence Committee that his agency, “as part of its counter intelligence mission,” is looking into possible links between members of Trump’s campaign team and Russian government collusion to influence the outcome of the U.S. 2016 presidential campaign in Trump’s favor. Included in this investigation are reported connections between Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and Russian and former Ukrainian leaders.

Comey also debunked Trump’s claim that former President Obama had “wiretapped” or in any way surveilled the Trump campaign before the election or during the transition. The FBI director announced that his agency has “no information that supports those tweets [Trump sent].”

For someone who published the best-selling book, The Art of the Deal, Donald Trump should have had at least one legislative victory notch chiseled into his political belt by now. Unfortunately for him, but gratefully for the expected 24 million people who would have lost their health care benefits, the Trump/Ryan (Tryan) “American Health Care Act” failed to even make it to the floor of the House due to the turbulent Civil War raging in Trump’s own not-so-Grand Old Party.

Throughout the brief process after Ryan released the plan, Trump showed neither knowledge of nor enthusiasm for the issue of health care reform, even though on the campaign stump he said this would be his first priority from “day one.”

Trump certainly demonstrated no “art” in this raw deal for the people of this country. But why would anyone show surprise since Trump had no skin in the game either in this health care battle nor in The Art of the Deal: Speaker Ryan constructed and promoted this draconian bad health plan, and Tony Schwartz, Trump’s long-time acquaintance, literally wrote the book. Though Trump asserts he at least read Schwartz’s book, the same cannot be said about his reading of Ryan’s legislation.

Trump’s recent approval rating stands at 39%, an historic low for any President this early in their tenure. A whopping 56% disapprove of his job performance.

While many voters understood this sham man for who and what he is, unfortunately his supporters either do not want to recognize or dismiss the truth of the entrepreneur of failed Trump Airlines, failed and fraudulent Trump University, failed Trump Vodka, failed Trump Steaks, failed Trump Casinos, multiple bankruptcies and bank foreclosures, and most recently, a failing presidency.

In his campaign rallies when he harped on “winning,” he asserted that people will contact and tell him, “Please please, it’s too much winning. We can’t take it anymore!”

About Warren Blumenfeld

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld is author of Warren’s Words: Smart Commentary on Social Justice (Purple Press); co-editor ofReadings for Diversity and Social Justice (Routledge) and Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States (Sense); editor of Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price (Beacon Press), and co-author of Looking at Gay and Lesbian Life (Beacon Press).